Defenses and Affirmative Defenses
Procedural Defenses
Joint tortfeasors act together or independently to produce one indivisible harm. Their liability may be joint and several, several only, or a hybrid depending on the jurisdiction and the fault allocation.
Indivisibility of the injury is the defining element.
Alternative Names:
Joint Tortfeasors, Co-Tortfeasor
Why it Matters?
Divisibility is what determines whether apportionment by causation is possible, since a harm that can be divided among causes permits each defendant to be liable only for its portion. Where the injury is genuinely indivisible, the allocation proceeds by fault percentage rather than causal contribution. Arguing divisibility is worth pursuing where the evidence supports separate harms from separate conduct.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What makes tortfeasors joint?
Why does divisibility matter?
